I WANT TO EAT A NUT OF LAERMA!

OTTAWA GALLERY CLEANED OUT

Little-known Ottawa art gallery gets every single piece of art stolen on opening day!

From The Ottawa Citizen:

"In the shadow of the National Gallery of Canada, thieves made away with an entire exhibition of artwork hours after it was unveiled.

It's a strange, $20,000 art heist that has the members of Ottawa's Blink Gallery art co-operative shaking their heads in disbelief.

The art -- paintings, sculpture, jewelry and photographs -- was shown to the public Sunday afternoon at Header House, a small stone building in Major's Hill Park owned by the National Capital Commission. The art pieces were mostly small, with a price limit of $500, displayed in two small rooms.

"Sunday was great. We had at least 150 people come through here," said artist Karina Kraenzle. "It was a great day. It was perfect. The work looked beautiful."

At the end of the four-hour open house, several artists saw the building being locked and the alarm set.

"We rattled the door. We could tell it was locked," said Ms. Kraenzle.

Monday around midday, one of the artists stopped by the building to retrieve one of her pieces and was astonished to find the walls bare, the art gone. The only thing left in the summertime gallery was a fridge. Even the labels above the artwork were gone. There was no sign of forced entry and the alarm was intact.

The co-op's members got an e-mail with the news.

"At first I thought that's not possible. We were all kind of in shock last night," said Ms. Kraenzle, standing in front of the locked building yesterday afternoon.

"It's baffling."

"It almost seems like an inside job," said Ron Whate, a new artist in the co-operative who didn't have any work in the building. "It was very efficiently done. They didn't disturb anything.

"This was our summer residence. Our own little art gallery," said Mr. Whate. "It's a real heartbreaker. We may have to cancel for the summer.""

The Blink Gallery has put up photos of the missing art on their site for anyone who might have information.

As someone who considers himself an up and coming artist of some sort, though I don't know if it will ever be more than a hobby, I must say that it probably does really, really suck to have your art stolen.

On the other hand, not to make too much light of a bad situation, it, in a twisted way, can be considered a compliment to think that thieves consider your art to be something worth stealing. Let's say that I had had some of my work displayed there... would it be worse to have had it stolen, or to be the guy whose work was left behind? I'm not too sure, really.

I noticed the Blink Gallery site also includes a contact address for a selection committee, so I might just get in touch with them and at least ask what they think of my work (the more recent stuff) if not to offer one or two pieces to fill up that now-empty space. They might not consider it good enough, but it can't hurt to try.

posted by Steve Brandon @ 11:01 PM